Attacks on the Press 2009: Venezuela

Key Statistic
34: Private radio and television stations pulled from the air.

After scoring a major victory in a February referendum that granted indefinite presidential re-election, President Hugo Chávez Frías and his government intensified their years-long crackdown on the private media. The government’s regulatory body took unprecedented steps to target critical broadcasters. Arbitrary decisions stripped private radio stations of their licenses, while a series of investigations threatened to shut down Venezuela’s remaining critical television broadcaster, Globovisión. In the country’s interior, an outspoken government critic was jailed, and an investigative reporter was slain in direct reprisal for his work.

Assailed by Chávez as an
instrument of the oligarchy engaged in “media terrorism,” Globovisión was the
target of a barrage of investigations. In September, the National
Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) opened an administrative probe after
accusing the network of inciting rebellion for airing a viewer’s text message
calling for a coup. In July, CONATEL began an inquiry into allegations that
Globovisión was airing messages that could create “anguish, anxiety, and fear.”
The broadcaster had run an advertising campaign defending private property (at
a time when the administration was nationalizing major industries, including
telecommunications, electricity, and some food production). Yet another inquiry
was opened in May, on charges of “inciting panic and anxiety in the
population,” after Globovisión reported on an earthquake that shook Caracas.
During the broadcast, Globovisión Director Alberto Federico Ravell urged
viewers to remain calm and accused authorities of failing to inform Venezuelans
in a timely way, according to international news reports. The broadcaster,
known for its strident antigovernment views, also had two pending
investigations from 2008. A sanction in any one case could mean suspension of
up to 72 hours; a second sanction could result in the revocation of the
broadcaster’s license.

The government threatened
to take other steps. In June, just hours after Chávez warned Globovisión to
cease its critical coverage or face closure, CONATEL requested that the
Attorney General’s office investigate whether the private broadcaster was criminally
liable for violations of the telecommunications law. CPJ called it a “serious
escalation” in tactics. No criminal investigation had been started by late
year.

Globovisión was also
victim of a violent attack in August, when a group of more than 30 armed
individuals on motorcycles stormed its Caracas offices, set off tear gas
canisters, and injured a local police officer and two employees. According to
video footage later aired by the broadcaster, the assailants were members of
the pro-Chávez political party Unión Patriótica Venezolana (UPV). Authorities
arrested UPV leader Lina Ron days later and charged her with “conspiring to
commit a crime,” according to a statement from Minister of Interior and Justice
Tarek El Aissami. Ron, released in October, was being tried in late year.

CONATEL used the
regulation of broadcast licenses as pretext to silence independent and critical
voices, pulling 32 privately owned radio stations and two TV stations off the
public airwaves in early August. The broadcasters, CONATEL alleged, had failed
to update their registration papers by a June deadline. According to the
regulator, the stations were operating illegally because their licenses had
been granted to “natural persons,” while the 2000 Law on Telecommunications required
they be turned over to “legal persons.” The broadcasters appealed, and many
presented evidence that they had filed documents to conform to the change. They
remained off the air in late year.

The regulator had
threatened earlier to revoke as many as 154 FM and 86 AM radio licenses. In a
July letter, CPJ urged Minister of Public Works and Housing Diosdado Cabello to
ensure that broadcast licensing be conducted in an unbiased and transparent
manner.

The Chávez administration
moved aggressively to curtail media freedom by introducing restrictive
legislation. In July, Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz submitted a bill that
would punish “press crimes” with prison terms. The goal, she said, was to
confront “new forms of criminality created by the abusive exercise of freedom
of information and opinion.” The initiative defined “press crimes” as actions
that threaten the “social peace, the security, and independence of the nation,
the stability of state institutions, mental health or public ethics, and actions
that cause a state of impunity.” The measure vaguely said it would “prevent and
punish actions or omissions displayed through the media that constitute a
crime,” and would sanction “any person who releases false news in the media
that causes serious public disorder, fear and anxiety among the population, or
damages to state institutions.” After an international outcry, the bill was
shelved by the National Assembly in August. (In January 2005, the National
Assembly drastically increased criminal penalties for defamation while
expanding the number of government officials protected by defamation
provisions.)

The legislature approved
an education bill with provisions prohibiting the distribution of material that
could incite “hate, aggressiveness,”“unruliness,” or cause “terror in children.” After the bill’s approval
on August 13, a dozen journalists from the Caracas-based dailies Ultimas Noticias, El Mundo, and Radio
Líder—owned by the private
media conglomerate Cadena Capriles—staged a street protest against provisions
they believed hindered free expression. That same afternoon they were struck
and kicked by people the journalists identified as state employees who accused
them of being “oligarchs” and “enemies of the people,” according to CPJ
interviews. No one was seriously injured, but the episode stayed in the
spotlight when Chávez accused the Cadena Capriles reporters of provoking the
attack. On August 15, authorities arrested Gabriel Uzcátegui, an employee of
the state-owned broadcaster Ávila TV, in connection with the assault. The
station denied involvement and questioned the veracity of the reported victims.
Uzcátegui had not been charged by late year.

Journalists covering
protests were systematically harassed and attacked. In January, protesters beat
Rafael Garanton, a photographer for the daily El Carabobeño, in
Carabobo province while covering a student protest over insecurity in the
streets, according to the regional press freedom group Instituto Prensa y
Sociedad. The journalist, whose camera was stolen by protesters, was taken to a
hospital with minor injuries. Instituto Prensa y Sociedad documented other
cases: José Gonzáles, a photographer for the daily El Mundo Oriental, was attacked in February by members of Venezuela’s National
Guard while photographing a public transportation drivers’ protest in
Anzoátegui. In April, a photojournalist for the Mérida-based daily Pico Bolívar, Héctor Molina, was threatened by hooded protesters when covering
a student demonstration. In July, National Guard officers held Zulia López and
Jesús Molina, a reporter and cameraman for the broadcaster RCTV Internacional,
and Thais Jaimez, a reporter for the daily Panorama, after they attempted to
cover a construction workers protest in Táchira province.

In July, a Táchira judge
ordered the arrest of Gustavo Azócar, an outspoken critic of Chávez and
correspondent for the national daily El
Universal, TV host, and blogger.
The judge found that Azócar, accused of financial crimes in a years-old case
concerning an advertising contract, had violated a pretrial order not to
comment publicly on the case. Azócar told CPJ he republished on his blog some
pieces from other media outlets about the case, but had not written about the
case himself. Azócar’s lawyer and colleagues told CPJ the journalist was being
punished for his critical commentary on local government officials.

Escalating overall
violence raised alarm, especially in the country’s interior. In January,
unidentified individuals shot and injured Rafael Finol, the political editor
for the daily El Regional, outside the paper’s offices in southwestern
Acarigua. The journalist told CPJ he believed the attack was in retaliation for
the paper’s political reporting, which supports the Chávez administration.
Finol told CPJ that investigators believed hired assassins had been involved in
the attack.

Also that month, an
unidentified individual shot and killed Orel Sambrano, director of the local
political weekly ABC de la Semana and Radio América, in the western city of
Valencia. Sambrano, 62, was known locally for his investigations and commentary
on local politics. Colleagues told CPJ that he had recently published a number
of investigative pieces on the family of local businessman Walid Makled. Press
reports said that Sambrano had also named Rafael Segundo Pérez, a Carabobo
police sergeant, as one of 13 local officers with ties to the Makled clan. On
February 13, authorities arrested Pérez and accused him of working as a hired
assassin and conspiring to commit a crime. Local news reports said authorities
also issued an arrest warrant for Makled, whose family denied the accusations.
Makled was believed to have left the country, news reports said. Deadly
violence against the press is rare in Venezuela, according to CPJ research. Five
journalists, including Sambrano, have been killed in relation to their work
since 1992.

One of Venezuela’s
most strident critics, Rafael Poleo, editor and publisher of the daily El Nuevo País and the newsmagazine
Zeta, fled the country in
September after he was summoned by authorities in connection with a 2008
appearance on Globovisión, during which Poleo said Chávez “could end up like
Mussolini.” Poleo, who is living in exile in Miami, has said the government is
looking to put him behind bars as part of its campaign against opponents,
according to local news reports.